Tag Archives: business

Beeline profit rise in Kyrgyzstan

NOV. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Beeline Kyrgyzstan, owned by Russia’s VimpelCom, posted Q3 profits up nearly 19% from Q2. Beeline said profit had risen because Kyrgyz were more relaxed about spending more on their mobile phones. Compared to last year, Beeline’s customer base was up only 1.7%. Analysts and businesses have said that in Kyrgyzstan, people are spending more and more time on their mobile phone surfing the web.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Turkmenistan signs Afghan power deal

NOV. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has signed a decree paving the way for Turkmen electricity supplies to Afghanistan until 2027, a move seemingly designed to increase stability in its southern neighbour as well as lock in a long-term client.

The Turkmen government announced the agreement through one of its official websites turkmenistan.ru.

It said that the contract now being finalised between Turkmenenenergo and their Afghan counterparts would run from Jan. 1 2018 until Dec. 31 2027.

It’s important because it highlights both Turkmenistan’s ability to negotiate long-term power deals for its neighbours and also its determination to help Afghanistan stabilise.

Turkmenistan needs a stable Afghanistan for two main reasons. It wants the Afghan government to be strong enough to be able to control a resurgent Taliban and it also needs Afghanistan to be a stable transit partner for the proposed TAPI pipeline running from its gas fields to consumers in India.

TAPI is vital for Turkmenistan. It needs to diversify its client base for gas as it is over-reliant on China.

Turkmenistan has been investing heavily in its power generating infrastructure. It sees the sector as another way of projecting itself on the international stage.

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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Armenia’s fish farm declares bankruptcy

NOV. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Unable to repay its debt to the banks, Unfish, one of Armenia’s largest fish farms, declared bankruptcy. Unfish’s exports to Russia, its main market, have fallen by 50% due to the weakening of the rouble against the Armenian dram. Armenia’s Fish Farmer’s Union asked the government to prevent more bankruptcies.

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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Georgia Healthcare Group completes London IPO

NOV. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In what is likely to be the only IPO on an international market by a company from Central Asia and the South Caucasus this year, Bank of Georgia completed the listing of its subsidiary Georgia Healthcare Group on the London Stock Exchange.

It sold a 29% stake in Georgia Healthcare Group, raising around £63m ($96m) to invest into two hospitals it has bought in the past couple of years in Tbilisi.

Georgia Healthcare Group is the largest private healthcare provider in Georgia, owning 42 hospitals and medical centres.

Although the IPO came in below the initial price range, Nikoloz Gamkrelidze, Georgia Healthcare Group’s CEO, was upbeat.

“A public listing enhances our ability to take advantage of the significant market growth prospects of the Georgian healthcare sector,” he said. “The primary proceeds will be used to fund our immediate growth plans, aimed at helping us achieve at least a doubling of our 2015 revenue by 2018.”

Reports earlier this year also suggested new legislation introduced by the Georgian government had forced Bank of Georgia to sell a large stake in its healthcare unit.

Georgia Healthcare Group had targeted a price range of 215-315p but instead had to settled for 170p, perhaps a reflection of the poor economic conditions in Emerging Markets in general and in the South Caucasus in particular. Since announcing the IPO in August, Bank of Georgia shares have lost 13% on the London Stock Exchange, possibly setting its healthcare unit up for its lower-than-hoped-for IPO pricing.

Even so, the Georgia Healthcare Group IPO, gave Western investors a rare chance to buy into the former Soviet Union. Over the past couple of years, London IPO plans from Kazakh companies in particular, have been shelved as an economic downturn triggered by low oil prices, worries about Emerging Markets and a recession in Russia bite.

Both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have announced they want to carve up some of their main state-owned companies and that they will look for IPOs on major international stock markets but these sales are a long way off.

Georgia Healthcare Group joins its parent company Bank of Georgia as the only two Georgian companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.

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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Stock market: GHG, Nostrum, KAZ Minerals

NOV. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — As the Bulletin reports on its front page, Georgia Healthcare Group (GHG) listed on the London Stock Exchange with an initial share price of 170p on Nov. 9. The company listed 29% of its shares, valuing the company around £218m ($331m). By Friday its shares had dropped to 181p.

Oil and commodities companies lost ground on the London stock market after Brent and copper prices fell by 6% and 4.5% this week.

Linked to this fall in the price of Brent crude futures, Kazakhstan-focused Nostrum Oil & Gas shares were down 16% closing at 367.5p. Nostrum recorded an 8% fall on Thursday, placing its shares among the worst performers on the FTSE 250.

Cooper producer KAZ Minerals, formerly known as Kazakhmys, faired worse. Its shares fell by 20% over the week, closing at 80p.

Tethys Petroleum shares jumped by 53% on Monday following Olisol’s letter of intent to acquire its stakes, but finished the week down to 4.25p.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Uzbekistan buys high-speed trains

NOV. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan’s railway company placed an order for 38m euros with Spanish train maker Talgo for two high-speed electric trains. The trains are designed for the upgrade of the Samarkand-Bukhara line.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

China launches another air-link with Georgia

NOV. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – China’s Southern Airlines launched a new route to Tbilisi from Urumchi in eastern China. The new route highlights China’s increased interest in Georgia and the South Caucasus. China has been boosting investments across the region.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Tethys does deal with Kazakh investment group Olisol

NOV. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Canadian oil and gas company Tethys Petroleum said it has entered into a non-binding agreement worth around $34m with Kazakhstan-based Olisol Investments, allowing it to refinance its debt and inject cash into exploration projects.

Tethys operates oil and gas projects in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Georgia.

Olisol upped its previous offer per share from 0.16 to 0.17 Canadian dollars, for a total of 25.5m Canadian dollars. In addition, Olisol will lend Tethys $15m. Last month, an Olisol statement said that it had worked with Tethys since 2009 and that it wanted to created a fully integrated oil and gas company in Kazakhstan.

Tethys, which was close to reaching a deal with London-listed Nostrum Oil & Gas earlier in September and has also attracted interest from AGR Energy, a company owned by the Kazakh Assaubayev family, said it was happy with the deal.

“We are pleased to have reached conditional agreement with Olisol on a potentially transformational refinancing,” the company statement quoted Tethy’s CEO, John Bell, as saying.

Analysts, though, were cautious on the real value of the deal.

“There is a lot of movement around Tethys, with offers being made and later being pulled. I would remain cautious of the whole situation, until a deal is signed,” Stephane Foucaud, managing director at First- Energy Capital investment firm, told the Bulletin.

“It is still unclear what kind of securities will Olisol use as a warranty for its interim financing. In these deals debt can often be used as a weapon.”

Perhaps most importantly for Tethys shareholders is that the deal spares it from working with AGR Energy and the Assaubayev family which has a mixed reputation in Kazakh business circles.

Tethys’ share price surged in London and Toronto on the day of the announcement, although it lost ground later.

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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Tajik President travels to Pakistan for trade talks

NOV. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon travelled to Islamabad for a two-day visit that will culminate with talks with Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif on plans to create a regional power market.

Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan hope to supply Pakistan and Afghanistan with power generated by their hydropower stations in a project dubbed CASA- 1000. The project is viewed as vital for increasing trade and diplomatic links between the neighbours.

And CASA-1000 already appears to be having a positive impact on relations between Tajikistan and its neighbours. This trip to Pakistan, will be Mr Rakhmon’s sixth.

An official at the Tajik embassy in Islamabad also said that wider trade relations would be discussed.

“During the Tajik president’s visit, they will discuss energy import, transit trade and linking the region through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which will bring prosperity in the entire area,” the unnamed official told the Express Tribune newspaper.

Electricity is one of Tajikistan’s and Kyrgyzstan’s main exports. Pakistan and Afghanistan are deficient in electricity.

Tajikistan and Pakistan don’t share a land border. A sliver of Afghanistan separates the countries.

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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Kazakh President’s daughter makes online profit

NOV. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – An investigation by a Kazakh website showed a company linked to the youngest daughter of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Aliya Nazarbayeva, is charging 2% for online payments through Kazakhtelecom.

In June, Kazakhtelecom, Kazakhstan’s largest provider of internet services, imposed a 2% charge when customers paid for its services online.

An investigation by the informburo.kz website showed that the service company Instant Payments had become the intermediary for these transactions and was the ultimate beneficiary of the 2% fee. Ms Nazarbayeva is the founder and owner of Instant Payments, informburo.kz reported. Within a day, the report had disappeared from the informburo.kz website but not before it had triggered public anger.

Typical of this anger was a comment from Vladimir P on alau.kz. “We are living a crisis, but everything goes in their large, immense pockets, not to the people,” he wrote.

Neither Ms Nazarbayeva nor Kazakhtelecom have commented. There is no suggestion of any wrong-doing.

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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)